Nuclear transformations and radioactive emissions: Part II—secondary transitions and post-effects

Abstract

The present chapter follows part I of a series of two articles, which characterized unstable nuclei and described primary transformation pathways to stabilize a nucleus in terms of its nucleon compositions. Part II focuses on follow-up phenomena of those “primary” transformations. It first illustrates the class of secondary transitions, which all originate from an excited nuclear level of a nucleus, formed in a primary transformation. Next it discusses post-effects, which appear when nuclear transformations and transitions affect the atom as a whole, i.e. also its electron shell. Third, there are several post-effect phenomena when particular or electromagnetic radiation emitted in the course of the above-mentioned processes interact with surrounding condensed matter. Consequently, there are many specific emissions which accompany those secondary and post-effect processes, and which are not directly related to the primary transformations. A prominent example is γ-emissions as emitted in one of the three secondary transition pathways. These γ-rays, however, represent just one of the many emission which altogether are the essence of radioactivity.